The Influence of Family and Community Social Capital on Educational Achievement*

Abstract It is increasingly recognized that families and communities are important in helping youths develop the knowledge and skills they need to obtain technologically sophisticated jobs, which are an emerging part of the global economy. In this paper we adopt social capital as a framework for examining the influence of family and community on promoting educational achievement among public school students. We explore more fully the role of community social capital in influencing educational performance beyond that attributed to family social capital. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS), we find that both process and structural attributes of family social capital are key factors affecting high school students' educational achievement. Process and structural attributes of community social capital also help youths to excel, though they contribute less strongly to achievement. These findings suggest that policies designed to promote educational achievement must extend beyond the school and must seek to strengthen social capital in the family and the community.     

The short-term and decade-long effects of divorce on women's midlife health

We hypothesize that divorce immediately increases psychological distress and has long-term negative consequences for the physical health of divorced people. In addition, we hypothesize that divorce indirectly causes long-term increases in distress through stressful midlife events. The hypotheses are tested using data from 416 rural Iowa women who were interviewed repeatedly in the early 1990s when they were mothers of adolescent children; the women were interviewed again in 2001. The data support the hypotheses. In the years immediately after their divorce (1991-1994), divorced women reported significantly higher levels ofpsychological distress than married women but no differences in physical illness. A decade later (in 2001), the divorced women reported significantly higher levels of illness, even after controlling for age, remarriage, education, income, and prior health. Compared to their married counterparts, divorced women reported higher levels of stressful life events between 1994 and 2000, which led to higher levels of depressive symptoms in 2001.     

Pathways to the All-Volunteer Military

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigates the role of a disadvantaged background, the lack of social connectedness, and behavioral problems in channeling young men to the opportunities of the all-volunteer military instead of to college and the labor market. METHODS: Data from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the United States. The analytic sample consists of 6,938 white, black, and other males. RESULTS: The greatest likelihood of military service versus college and the labor force occurs when young men of at least modest ability come from disadvantaged circumstances, experience minimal connectedness to others, and report a history of adolescent fighting. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest the importance of access to post-high school education and worklife opportunities as a military service incentive for less advantaged young men in the all volunteer era.     

Linking early social risks to impaired physical health during the transition to adulthood

The present longitudinal study of 485 youth used structural equation models to investigate the ways in which a combination of social disadvantage in the family of origin and adolescent maladjustment increases risk for physical health difficulties during adulthood. The study examined a theoretical model that proposes that disruptions in the transition to adulthood mediate the effect of earlier social disadvantage and adolescent maladjustment on young adult physical health status. Results show that early risk factors initiate a sequence of negative influences on young adult physical health through early entry into family responsibility, truncated educational attainment, and poor occupational and economic status. These associations prevailed even after controlling for physical health status during adolescence.     

Important Yet Ignored: Problems of 'Expertise' in Emergency Duty Social Work

Summary This paper deals with the important role that emergency dutyworkers play in respect of the variety of situations that arereferred to them outside of the normal working hours of socialservices departments. The first section presents some interimoutcomes of ongoing research suggesting that the variabilityof priorities and assessments made by such workers is even greaterthan might be intuitively expected. The paper questions whetherconventional expectations of social work assessment are applicablein circumstances that are radically different from day-timework. In the second section, the paper explores the evidentmoral dilemmas contained in these circumstances, highlightingthe need for workers to have internalized as ‘expert’as broad a grasp as possible of the diversity of values andmethods of social assessment, decision-making and intervention.The paper continues by considering the nature of expert methodssuitable for the demands of emergency duty work, the need forguidelines for professional judgement, and an appropriate genericframework.     

War mobilization and the life course: A cohort of World War II veterans

Men experience historical events, such as wars, at different times in their lives and are thereby influenced in different ways. Using data on a cohort of veterans from World War II, this study investigates the proposition that entry into the armed forces at a relatively early age maximized discontinuity and facilitated a redirection of the life course through psychological development, a delayed entry into family roles, and greater advancement opportunity. By comparison, later entry into the service favored greater risk of family and career disruption within a pattern of life continuity from adolescence to the middle years. Results from the analysis are consistent with these expectations.